The 20 Best Restaurants Right Now

We care about food. And so for the 27th straight year, Esquire food correspondent John Mariani has compiled the best new restaurants: the chefs both celebrity (Jean-Georges Vongerichten, also in the video above, whose ABC Kitchen won Restaurant of the Year) and local (Sean Baker, our favorite newcomer) who bring a singularity of vision to what they put on the plate; the dishes that tasted so good we couldn't help but annotate them; and the mainstays of classic cooking, like the risotto at SD26, that will never go out of fashion. But we also recognize that, particularly in these recessionary times, dining is about more than just the food. And so for the first time, we also looked at the people around us — not just what they were eating, but the experiences they were having. We asked an architect how to make the coolest restaurant possible. As has become this blog's weekly habit, we talked to a lovely hostess about the perks (and pitfalls) of her job. And we collected some of our favorite overheard conversations. (For our own amusement, we also put some tired food trends to rest.) Along the way, as it turns out, we ate plenty of great food, some of which can be found in the most unexpected of places, including a restaurant that just happens to call itself a whiskey bar. Because what we learned is the new best restaurants don't always look like the old best restaurants — or restaurants at all.

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